A Simple Question
by Zorknot
Summary: Plum asks her father a question about the springs. (very short)


A Simple Question   
A Ranma fanfic by Zorknot   
  
DISCLAIMER: n. sl. One who claims to have dissed. (ex. I may have dissed Rumiko Takahashi by writing this fic, then again I might just be a DISCLAIMER)   
  
NOTES: It should be known that I know next to nothing about Plum, as I haven't gotten that far in the manga yet. This takes place a couple years before Ranma takes a dip, not that it really matters. Enjoy!   
  
  
  
Plum looked up at her father with admiration. He seemed to know absolutely everything! He could even speak in different languages! A lot of her friends back at the village thought he was weird for living so near Jusenkyo, but Plum couldn't think of anything cooler. She visited her father whenever possible and he would always have a different story to tell her. He called all of them tragic of course but many of them were really funny.   
  
Like this one story about a cute little piglet that had belonged to a butcher's daughter. It loved being with the daughter, but it absolutely hated the butcher and would bite him all the time. Well one time the butcher's family was hungry, and the butcher was sick of dealing with the pig so he got out his knives and chased the small creature. The poor thing was so tired and exhausted after running all the way to the Jusenkyo springs that when he lowered his head to drink he just fell in.   
  
Plum supposed that WAS pretty tragic, but the stories her father would tell of the pig, the butcher, and his daughter would have her rolling on the floor in laughter every time he told them. Especially the ones where the Butcher starts to think his daughter is getting a little TOO close to the pig...   
  
Still Plum was always properly somber when her father told her the moral of the story: always boil your food before you cut it.   
  
Her father always said the most terrible thing about the springs was how the victims were haunted by the lives of the creatures that drowned in them. Plum shuddered to think how someone might be affected by Maonichuan, the spring of the cat owned by nobility that rubbed against the legs of the emperor so much that it was kicked all the way to Jusenkyo when the Emperor just couldn't take it anymore. Or the spring of the duck that kept returning to the Bayankala region every year, looking for a mate, only it would pursue anything that moved, much to the annoyance of the Amazons who lived there.   
  
Plum was absolutely enthralled with the place. All those stories... all that magic... She almost wanted to leap onto the poles that protruded out of the springs and dare fate to make her fall, but she didn't really want to get cursed. She knew some people...Well it wasn't as fun as it sounded. Still, she looked at the poles wistfully from time to time as she walked with her father through the springs. Something started to nag her...   
  
"Father?"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Everything that falls into the springs gets cursed right?"   
  
"Well, things have to have a certain amount of ki in order for them to be affected. I mean sticks and stones don't get cursed of course, and if bugs changed we'd be over run with Jusenkyo beasts within the day. "   
  
"But no person could walk in a spring and not get cursed?"   
  
"No. And I suggest you get any fool notions out of your head before you do something you regret. I already have enough trouble with the tourists as it is, I don't need to be worrying about you too."   
  
"I wasn't thinking of that!... Well maybe a little, but I was just wondering, if anyone who goes into a spring gets cursed..."   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"And most of the springs have animal curses..."   
  
"Right, all of them except for about five."   
  
"Then how did all the poles get there?"   
  
"......" Plum's father, the Jusenkyo guide, stopped walking and looked at the poles all around him, perplexed. Each was stuck in the middle of a spring and buried several feet into the ground. There was no way anyone could put a pole there without getting cursed, and if they got cursed, they wouldn't be able to put a pole there. The guide scratched his nearly bald head confounded.   
  
Plum was shocked. Evidently there WERE some things he didn't know...   
  
  
  
  
Just another little thought I had. C+C welcome of course.   
  
BTW anyone know of any good fics where Akane gets splashed with nannichuan? I'm having surprising difficulty finding one. 


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